MEDICO

Week 2 Message to the Pre-Intern: don’t lose hope! Week 2, for me, was 2 months post-induction. This was when the wait began to sink in. You mean I’ve been home for two whole months? By now, I was literally chewing on my fingernails. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t scared of getting a space, but I certainly wasn’t confident about any place anymore. That is when I began to write this book. Today is the 12th of September and I sit at the dining table in my parents’ house, typing at 11:27pm (because well, I have an editing job to finish up, but mostly because I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow morning). If I don’t want to, I don’t even have to take a bath tomorrow morning because well, I can stay indoors all day! (I most likely will stay indoors, except for those few minutes when I step out to buy hot akara for my akamu). I am spent. You know, I have applied to a couple of places now. Let me start with the first: LS Health Service Commission At the State Health servic...

Week 1 It is neither the beginning nor the end; but rather, it’s the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. You thought it was over? Nope, it just started. I left medical school! On the 7th of July, 2017; I was inducted into the medical profession with so much finesse. You know that feeling you get when you are finally able to accomplish something, great right? Although the celebration seemed larger than life to me (I mean, who are all these people eating my rice?), I managed to get through it- because my kind of celebration is really in a quiet place, by a beach or you know, some really somber place with chocolate and ice cream, and maybe one or two Netflix series (ah ah). I could smell so many opportunities in the air, you know. I was sure that I would have started housemanship by September- dead sure. In fact, I already had a couple of leads and I was simply waiting to get my ‘papers’ ready- my MDCN documents. Getting space wasn’t something I pondered over; I...

CHAPTER 7 Journal Entry by Karen Delgado- 6/21/2010 'My new picture is of the middle school students, dressed in pink. They are in a 'breast cancer awareness' formation. In another shot, they are in the formation of 2010...the picture was used as the front cover of this year's yearbook.' Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned- Peter Marshall Have you ever felt so indebted to someone that you couldn't say 'thank you', because those two words couldnt adequately capture the magnitude of your indebtedness? Have you ever willed yourself to like something beneath your taste, something otherwise tasteless to you- a bland shirt which you never would have bought if you had enough cash reserve, 'healthy' fish rather than 'unhealthy' chicken- not because you were considering the health implications but simply because you were short on cash? Sometimes, we learn to live in situations and be thankful for them, not beca...

CHAPTER 7 'LABISI: Chronicles of a Breast Cancer Warrior Journal Entry by Karen Delgado- 6/21/2010 'My new picture is of the middle school students, dressed in pink. They are in a 'breast cancer awareness' formation. In another shot, they are in the formation of 2010...the picture was used as the front cover of this year's yearbook.' Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned- Peter Marshall Have you ever felt so indebted to someone that you couldn't say 'thank you', because those two words couldnt adequately capture the magnitude of your indebtedness? Have you ever willed yourself to like something beneath your taste, something otherwise tasteless to you- a bland shirt which you never would have bought if you had enough cash reserve, 'healthy' fish rather than 'unhealthy' chicken- not because you were considering the health implications but simply because you were short on cash? Sometimes, we learn to live...

EPISODE 11 As she left the Emergency Room that afternoon, Bunmi knew that she had to sort out her emotions. She also knew that she had to come to a logical, yet emotionally agreeable conclusion on whom she was going to end up with. There was absolutely no way around this. Thankfully though, today was a Friday.  Much more calming was the fact that she wasn’t on call all weekend. She had planned to leave for a private resort, treat herself to a 2-day break. These two days were obviously critical in deciding her future, the shape her life would take for a really long time. But first, she had to get out of this environment which was currently chaotic for her- away from Fola, Kenny, his mother and most of all, from the hospital whose walls reminded her on a daily basis of her choices over the past 6 years. ‘Dr. Phillips, before you leave today, ensure you write the discharge summaries for those 3 patients to be discharged from our unit.’ , one of the senior resident doctors...

EPISODE 5 ‘So, really, whose patient is she?’ Doctor Afuarida asked with impatience written all over his face Bola indicated, her body language reeking of timidity, ‘Sir, she was supposed to be my patient, but I haven’t been able to clerk her’ ‘Oh, really? She was supposed to be?’ ‘Do you even have any other patient on the ward?’ ‘Ehm…no sir. But my other patient has just been discharged’ ‘Please, leave my ward round. You are obviously unprepared to truly learn the art of medicine.’ She knew better than to plead and therefore, walked out with the little dignity she still had left. He continued lecturing the rest of the students ‘You know, whatever you do now will speak later in life and especially in your medical career. If you want to be a good doctor, it definitely begins from now- taking responsibility’ Dr.Amao, please give me a summary on this patient ’22 year old female, had appendectomy done. 1 st day post-op. Mild pain at op-site. Currently on IV Met...

 EPISODE 3 ‘Oya sorry now, we’re almost there.’ Felix kept saying as he partially carried his dear friend.  She wouldn’t hear the last of this episode once it was over, that much he knew! ‘Awww…you don’t know how painful awww… this is’ ‘Sorry, sorry’ ; he kept saying So they eventually got to the ER and after pulling out her card, used ‘medical student connection’ to see the resident that was on call in Internal Medicine unit. ‘Hello dear’ , Dr. Brown said, looking keenly at the girl that was almost doubled over in pain ‘I think you should lie down on that couch’ ‘What exactly is the problem?’ ‘She just started complaining about her abdomen about half an hour ago’ ‘Oh’. ‘Can you point to where exactly the pain started?’ he asked ‘Here’ . Linda pointed to the area around her umbilicus. ‘Have you had any episode of vomiting?’ ‘No sir’ Felix answered spontaneously. ‘You must be her boyfriend, right?’ Dr.Brown asked, with a mischievious grin ...